Where Are America's Highest-Rated Doctors? Hint: You May Want To Move West
The single-camera Portlandia has given its Northwestern namesake quite a reputation as a second city of offbeat hipsters forever in the shadow of Seattle; finicky vegan diners, adults who play hide-and-seek, and a missing mayor found playing bass in a ska band. Now, the city may also boast of having America’s highest consumer-rated doctors, according to Zocdoc.
Patients who scheduled doctor’s appointments through the online service rated their physicians on waiting time and bedside manner. Portland, Ore., led the nation with the highest consumer rating of doctors based on those online reviews. Best of all? Residents of the city may revel in that fact that Seattle placed only third on the list.
Some cities were rated differently, based on physician specialty, with the highest-rated dentists found in Los Angeles. Portland was followed on overall patient satisfaction by Boston, Seattle, St. Louis, San Diego, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. However, some doctors say the reviews unfairly assess clinicians based on the inherently subjective metric of patient satisfaction.
"Satisfaction rankings grade physicians on inappropriate metrics," William Sullivan, an emergency room doctor in Chicago, told Business Insider. "Bedside manner is an important part of patient care, but when patients come to an emergency department with an emergency condition, first and foremost they want a competent physician who delivers quality medical care."
Clinicians who showcase excellent interpersonal skills with charm and wit might otherwise deliver poor performance on the job, with the inverse true for some doctors missing a funny bone. Likewise, the charming, good doctors of Portland might receive fainter praise elsewhere in the country, with harsher critics leaving reviews online.
However, America’s doctors have different ideas on which cities offer the most satisfying work environments with the best overall wellness. San Antonio tops the list of cities preferred by America’s doctors, according to Soliant Health. The growing city is home to the Brooke Army Medical Center and two other Level-I trauma centers, including the South Texas Medical Center.
Austin is followed closely in physician satisfaction by Houston and Huntsville, Texas. Boston and New York City complete the top five best U.S. cities for doctors on that list.
When it came to patient satisfaction, these were the top 10 cities, according to ZocDoc.
- Portland, Oregon
- Austin, Texas
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Seattle, Washington
- St. Louis, Missouri
- San Diego, California
- Chicago, Illinois
- San Francisco, California
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Los Angeles, California